CHICAGO -- Bob Avellini, the former Bears quarterback who teamed with Hall of Fame running back Walter Payton to lead the Bears to the 1977 playoffs, has died. He was 70.
The Bears said Saturday that Avellini died of cancer. The team did not say when he died.
Avellini and Payton had the finest seasons of their careers in 1977, when Chicago and the Minnesota Vikings each went 9-5 in the NFC North. Minnesota won the division, while Chicago earned a wild-card playoff berth.
The Bears were beaten by Dallas 37-7 in the playoffs that season. Avellini threw 11 touchdown passes and had a career-high 2,004 yards with 18 interceptions. Payton, meanwhile, rushed for more than 1,800 yards and 14 TDs.
"Bob was one-of-kind, a fierce and tough competitor," the team said in a statement. "He's perhaps best remembered for leading the Bears on an improbable run in 1977 to our first postseason appearance in fourteen years. He will be missed."
Avellini threw for 7,111 yards with 33 touchdowns and 69 interceptions in 73 games over nine seasons, from 1975 to 1984.
Avellini, from New York, was part of the same draft class as Payton, selected by Chicago in the sixth round out of Maryland in 1975. Payton was the fourth overall pick.
Bob Avellini, the former Chicago quarterback who teamed with Hall of Fame running back Walter Payton
Walter Payton
Walter Payton, a running back for the Bears for 13 seasons during the 1970s and 80s, was one of the greatest football players of all time. Nicknamed “Sweetness,” Payton rushed over 100 yards in 77 games and over 1,200 yards in 10 seasons, including an NFL-best 1,852 in 1977.
It was his sixth arrest for DUI since 2002, and Avellini claimed that head injuries he suffered during his playing career contributed to depression and his drinking issues, the Sun-Times reported.
In one 1984 game, Payton was pressed into service as the team's fourth-string quarterback. Payton performed with his teammates in the widely released 1985 music video The Super Bowl Shuffle. The Bears went on to a 15–1 record that culminated in a 46–10 victory over the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XX.
McMahon led the Chicago Bears' offense for the first eight seasons of his 15-year NFL career, from 1982 to 1989, including coming back in 1985 from a season-ending injury the year before and leading the Bears to the 1986 Super Bowl title beating the New England Patriots. McMahon was named to the Pro Bowl that season.
Truth is, the Bears haven't had a great quarterback since Sid Luckman, who played for the Bears between 1939 and 1950 and led the franchise to four NFL titles between 1940 and 1946. Since then, there has been a parade of quarterbacks, some better than others, though only two steered the Bears to the Super Bowl.
Walter Payton is widely considered the best player in Bears history and among the top running backs of all time. He spent his entire 13-year NFL career with the Bears from 1975-87, missing just one game and retiring as the league's all-time leading rusher with 16,726 yards.
The easy answer as to why Cutler is the greatest quarterback in Bears history is because he owns the record for most passing yards (23,443), touchdowns (154), wins (51), game-winning drives (18) and games started (102).
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